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AMT '67 Mustang Fastback-Completed-05/23


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Yes it is true that I've got another Maverick (Hubert Platt's car) build in the works but I just couldn't help myself when I saw AMT/ Round 2 come out with their newest re-pop of an old fave of mine. After this whole 262 build I've just about made my mind up that the next kit I'll be taking on will be the latest release of AMT's '67 Mustang by Round 2. The kit has alot going for it in the fact that there's updated decals, cleaner molds and pad printed tires.

 

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and I managed to pick up a small PE fret for it as well. 

 

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I've been wanting to build one of these anyhow since I owned 3 different '67's . My last one was my favorite as it had a 351W with a 4spd and 3.55 gears and it just so happened to be the same Acapulco Blue that the fastback on the box top is. Fun car and I had a LOT of fun driving it through the years. I still love the look of the wider rear tires and the much smaller ones but I'll be building this kit using the stock wheels and tires.

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This is the only picture I can find of the engine as of right now and this is in car #2. A 351W from a '69 Mach 1 with 4 barrel heads, Comp Cams 280H cam, MSD Unilite Ignition and a Holley 650 Double Pumper. It also had 11:1 compression. Note to everybody out there that knows anything about cars. NEVER do that on the street. You're guaranteed to be plagued with detonation problems unless you run HIGH octane fuel all the time. (98 or better). This engine did make this car haul like a scaled assed ape though.  

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Edited by mustang1989
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Your warning is valid to a point but things can be tried. I ran easily on 93 octane pump at 10.85:1 with 38 degrees total advance. Backing off 2 degrees gave a comfortable cushion but the response was slightly soft. On leaded 110 octane race gas, I could run 40 degrees but best ET's were at 38. Aluminum heads were a great help to pushing the advance/octane envelope.

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20 hours ago, Codger said:

Your warning is valid to a point but things can be tried. I ran easily on 93 octane pump at 10.85:1 with 38 degrees total advance. Backing off 2 degrees gave a comfortable cushion but the response was slightly soft. On leaded 110 octane race gas, I could run 40 degrees but best ET's were at 38. Aluminum heads were a great help to pushing the advance/octane envelope.

 

Definitely hear what you're saying about aluminum heads Codger. I'm in a similar situation now with my truck. I've got a set of Vortec iron heads on it (which is the BEST production ever put out by Chevrolet) but wanted a set of E-Tec or AFR aluminum heads for it. Those my good friend.......go for around $1700 for the pair. Way too much for me to dole out right now so I'm building power to 5200 rpm with the Vortecs which aint gonna be bad considering they'll be going on a small block 406. 525 + ft lbs of torque outta get that truck of mine hauling. lol

 

 

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Well.....the stance was just what I expected. I have a spare AMT GT-350 in the stash so I cut the necessary sprues from the trees and mocked everything up just to check. Man.....there's gonna need to be some fancy footwork to straighten this out if I'm going to get this thing to look like 1.) the box top (which is severely misleading if a builder thinks that this kit will build up just like the picture) and 2.) look like I want it to look personally. 

 

On a couple of other notes.....

 

1.) Pay attention to the attachment wheel retainers (that I have marked "R" for rear and "F" for front. They are different sizes meaning the rear retainer has a larger hole for the axle then the front does for the spindle.

 

2.) The box top shows Firestone Wide Oval Tires and the kit has these Super Sports instead. Not a game changer but hey.....put what's ON the box IN the box. C'mon!!! Same goes for the stance. Just sayin' spacer.png

 

The OOB stance:

 

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48 minutes ago, mustang1989 said:

 

Definitely hear what you're saying about aluminum heads Codger. I'm in a similar situation now with my truck. I've got a set of Vortec iron heads on it (which is the BEST production ever put out by Chevrolet) but wanted a set of E-Tec or AFR aluminum heads for it. Those my good friend.......go for around $1700 for the pair. Way too much for me to dole out right now so I'm building power to 5200 rpm with the Vortecs which aint gonna be bad considering they'll be going on a small block 406. 525 + ft lbs of torque outta get that truck of mine hauling. lol

 

 

Stock Vortec's an excellent choice for budget power. For a 406, bowl porting is even better. If yours have (or can afford mod) screw-in rocker studs, consider a hydraulic roller cam swap (around a 113 LSA for torque) and 1:6 rockers. Should be cheaper than that $1700 head change. Obviously you have dyno access.

 

Virtually all kit models get ride height wrong. Judging by Dyno's Maverick, you know how to make this one right. B)

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2 minutes ago, Codger said:

Stock Vortec's an excellent choice for budget power. For a 406, bowl porting is even better. If yours have (or can afford mod) screw-in rocker studs, consider a hydraulic roller cam swap (around a 113 LSA for torque) and 1:6 rockers. Should be cheaper than that $1700 head change. Obviously you have dyno access.

 

Virtually all kit models get ride height wrong. Judging by Dyno's Maverick, you know how to make this one right. B)

 Thanks for the feedback bro. You're right about that alright and I've already got the bowl porting complete and screw in studs are already done and the roller conversion is a MUST. Going with a Howards cam. 108 LSA with .495/ .500 lift and some 1.6 roller rockers are already in the picture.  New lift after 1.6 will be .528/ .533" and that's about as far as you can push a Vortec head. 

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the ride height as well. If you'll remember I used this same chassis on that build. lol 

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2 minutes ago, Codger said:

Just a caution, 108 LSA may not help your torque for truck application. I had .613/.633 at 108 but in 2600 pound Cobra...:nono:

 

Yikes!!! Believe it or not the ol' truck only clocks in at 3800 lbs. That sounds heavy but when you factor in that its an extended cab truck it aint bad....especially when most cars these days are clocking in at well over that figure. lol 

 

btw....those stupid Hankooks got traded out for Some BFG Radial T/A's a few months back.

 

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1 minute ago, Codger said:

Forgot to mention that Vortecs can tolerate up around .050 cut if you can tolerate more compression..

 

That right there is a true statement for sure. I may be able to go in the 9.5-9.8 range.  With 400 SBC/ Vortec combo you've gotta be careful with the compression. Vortecs are 64cc heads and with flat top pistons you're sporting 11.8:1 compression. NOT ideal for the street. With a -28cc dished piston it takes 'er down to a streetable 9.1 ish:1 compression ratio. 

4 minutes ago, Codger said:

Sorry - you can't be a 'Mr Mustang' with a Bowtie truck that nice...:nono:

 

LOLOLOLOLOL!!!! 

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8 minutes ago, Codger said:

Sorry - you can't be a 'Mr Mustang' with a Bowtie truck that nice...:nono:

 

Oh yeah.....I've owned four Mustangs over the years and only one Chevy.....I'm still a "Mr. Mustang" . spacer.png

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  • 1 month later...

Haven't posted anything on this build here as I forgot I had a build thread out in the open for this. I've been posting all of my progress on the Mustang GB thread so I apologize for not posting here. Any hoo.....here we go....

 

Made some changes to get the stance where I wanted it. The front got some re-positioning of the front spindles, a little sanding here and a little drilling there. All the rear springs needed was a slight re-arching. Now it's starting to look more like I want it to with a slight forward rake.
 

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  • mustang1989 changed the title to AMT '67 Mustang Fastback-Stance Corrections-08/25
  • 3 months later...

Alright gang. FINALLY back after a couple of months away. All I can say is WOW!!!  Haven't been around a whole lot lately  but I'm going to see this build through to the end. Had a personal setback that's been taking alot of my attention until this last week.Short version, our sons truck got hit right in front of our house by a hit and run driver a couple of months ago, found the car by running part numbers off of one of the many car parts that were left behind and now have an insurance claim against the hit and run drivers insurance. Just reached a settlement which replaced his truck with one pretty similar to the one he had. Mixed in with this is my own engine project for my truck that has been ongoing since the first of the year. Will be replacing my 383 Stroker engine with a Small Block Chevy 400 punched out to a 406. Will be going from 404hp to some where around the 500hp mark. Won't be the fastest thing around but it damn sure won't be the slowest either. Then you throw in the holidays. Great time of year but super busy. Anyways.....I'm back and will continue posting the progress here till I get to where I'm currently at with the build.

 

I started out on the engine in which I like how the basic engine layout is done. A one piece engine block with a separate oil pan which is a good thing because there is less of a seam line going down the middle of the bellhousing, oil pan and down the front of the engine between the intake manifold and timing cover. In the foreground you'll see the two parts that I just CANNOT use. This aint no P-51 Mustang so out goes the four bladed prop and I'm still trying to figure out just what in the hell they were thinking in regards to the carburetor. Man..........c'mon Round 2. The distributor is also a little weird looking so I may switch that out as well. The one other issue that I have with the engine is that it doesn't have an oil filter. To me this was a big deal but may not be to some folks. But................there's nowhere to put it either because the engine mount bosses cover the exact area where the filter is supposed to go. Looks like that part will be skipped on this build.
 

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All of the engine parts needed cleaning up but the exhaust manifolds were the areas that needed the most. When cleaning these up with the X-acto blade you've gotta be careful because this plastic is REALLY soft. You can take off more than you want quicker than you're ready for if you're not careful. Just a heads up to anyone out there that wants to build this kit.

 

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Additionally, on the back side of the exhaust manifolds are what looks like casting protrusions towards the front of each manifold and they may very well be BUT......in test fitting the manifolds to the cylinder head with the head fitted onto the engine block these protrusions also serve as a standoff which steadies positions them about where they are supposed to be in relation to the manifold exhaust outlets. So...................I left em in place.
 

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Good news!! I found me some BONUS SHOTS of my old car!!!!!  I'm currently doing a bathroom renovation to our master bathroom and needed some tools that were hidden away in the "house toolbox" by my wife. While looking for the tools I found a small plastic box with.......a whole load of pictures of my old blue Mustang PLUS a slew of negatives that I'll be taking to a photo developer here in town to have pictures printed up with. Frickin' SCORE!!!! 

 

Here are those missing pictures of my '69 Mach 1 351W in my '67 while it was under construction. Man.....I haven't seen these things in 10 years. Now.....what tha hell were they doing in the dang tool box for?spacer.png

 

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  • 5 months later...

Ok folks. I have to apologize for the long absence. I had a lot going on last year and then at the end of the year my mom and dad caught Covid-19. Dad did alright ...but mom....not so much. She passed away in late January which really hit me hard. Subsequently I didn't really feel very "forum like" and stepped away from the bench for a little while. About a month and a half ago I plopped myself down at my bench chair and went back to work on this one. The next post that follows will contain the completion of this project. Thank you all for chiming in and encouraging me along the short way that I had started. Stay tuned......It'll be up within the day.

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8 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Looking forward to more Mustang magic!

 

5 hours ago, JeroenS said:

That's rough... sorry to hear that. 

 

Thank you for the comments, condolences and the reactions fellas. 

 

This whole build started last July after I saw the kit re-released by Round 2. I've had visions in my mind for years of building a 1967 Mustang Fastback model as it would have been if I had one. I've had the pleasure of owning three 67 coupes and always wanted a fastback in real life. My last Mustang was the best of the three because it was built from the first two cars and I had managed to score a 351W from a 69 Mach 1. She also had a 4spd manual transmission and 3.55 gears. 

The first car I had I managed to purchase from my home town. It had a 289 2bbl with an automatic tranny and 2.79 gears. It wasn't fast but it was a good lookin' car. On one of my many trips back to Ft. Hood from my home town in North Texas I hit a deer and destroyed the front end of the car. (going off into the ditch is the WRONG thing to do when dodging animals I found out). The deer was only the beginning of the damage....while dodging the deer I didn't look on the OTHER side of it and dove into a concrete drainage system. This car....was done.

 

Car #1: Acquired 1989-Decommissioned-1990

 

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I found Car #2 in a wrecking yard and rescued it. Man.....that car was rough looking BUT.....it was a GT and had all the options to include tilt away steering which was a very weird option but definitly good on the cool factor. This car also had a standard transmission from the factory. No engine or tranny was in the car when I bought her for $100 but I quickly took care of that. The 289 was carried over from Car #1 and I got a close ratio 4 speed tranny for this one. Later on I bought the 351W I was talking about earlier and freshened it up and dropped it into this car and drove it for a few more years before somebody pulled out in front of me at Ft Hood. I dodged but not before I hit him with my drivers side door in a side skid. Jeez....

 

Car #2 before the wreck: Acquired 1990--Decommissioned 1991

 

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and after the wreck:

 

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The tilt way column that I was talking about. This was supposed to help with driver ingress and egress. Definitely different:

 

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I did get the opportunity to lay my hands on Car #1 and Car #2 after 30+ years. They are both in the same wrecking yard in my home town within 15 feet of one another. Car #2 is in the foreground and #1 is just behind it. For what it's worth they are still together and still not crushed out.

 

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This is where Car #3 comes in. Acquired 1991--Sold 2002

 

I bought her for $600 at Fort Hood and towed her back home. I had two other parts cars now to draw parts from to make this one the best car out of the three and one that I would have for 11 years. Me and my best friend built this car over a course of 5 days from this at day one:

 

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to this at Day 3 of 5 moving under her own power.

 

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The next two days would see the finish up...bumpers, trim, interior and all the cool stuff to make this car driveable.

The end result:

 

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Now....all of this is where the inspiration for my build here came from. I wanted to build a fastback with all of the things that I had in this last car with the only difference being that I wanted factory style wheels on this one. And so, I set out on my venture.

I purchased this kit....and went for broke.

 

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Color is Acapulco Blue from MCW Finishes, Wet Look covers the clear coat. The pad printed tires in this kit are a God send and thanks to Eric Oberhaufer at AMT the change out from the Firestone Super Stock tires that this kit came with got changed out to the Wide O Oval tires you see in the following pictures. Model Car Garage covered most of the PE items that you'll see on this car with PE kit # MCG-2032. Joel at Iceman Collections provided the Cobra air cleaner, HGW Models provided this 1/48 scale REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag hanging from the rearview mirror and the CPC 64F (the same tag that was on Car #3) license plate and plate frame were provided by Thomas at Speedway decals. Throttle linkage, air cleaner wingnut & washer, fuel lines and brake lines were all either fabricated or drawn from PE parts bin. Throttle return spring is an element from an automotive turn signal bulb. Plug wires are from Lex's Scale Modeling and the 650 cfm Holley Double Pumper carburetor was from Shapeways.

The hood scoop is from the AMT GT-350 kit and was graphed onto the stock hood. I also cut out the area of the hood where the scoop was to allow the air cleaner to sit up inside of the scoop from proper hood closure/ seating.

Outside door handles are from Fireball Modelworks, Alclad applied to both and pinned in place.

  A good amount of work had to be done to get the front suspension lowered achieve the stance that I wanted and the front wheels had to be moved in ......significantly... to go inside of the wheel wells where they belonged. The rear suspension had to be raised so a light re-aching of the leaf springs is all that took. 

 This kit is a good kit overall but there are some notable areas that need mentioning. Firts off ...the good. The base engine was well represented with only a carburetor change out needed to spice things up a bit. The interior is also well represented with good detail. The aluminum plating on the dash face is a BEAR to replicate on this one as is the door panels. If anyone's interested in how I pulled that off let me know and I'll be happy to tell you how I managed to get through it. 

80% of this build was pretty straight forward BUT....the fit between the nose piece and the drivers front fender on these kits is very hard to get flush. I spent all KINDS of time trying to fix the issue and STILL ended up with a slight gap. Test fit--sand-test fit--file--test fit and MORE TEST FIT is required to get this part right. The fuel cap sticks out way too far because it's thicker than it needs to be. I took sandpaper and stuck it into the contours of the tail light panel and sanded it down to what I felt like was the proper thickness. The front and rear bumpers had little braces going down on either side of the license plate area and I don't care for those so I cut those off of both bumpers, stripped the chrome from them, cleaned 'em up and worked the Alclad magic on both.

 I'm pretty happy with the turnout overall as it's just the look I wanted to get from the build. Thank you guys for following along, encouraging me and helping me get through this one.

Finishing shots:

 

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  • mustang1989 changed the title to AMT '67 Mustang Fastback-Completed-05/23

A beautiful looking Mustang. Well done. The car sits perfectly. Having built the Shelby version, I can see the amount of work you have put into this build. It's a challenging kit to get right and you have certainly got it right. The detailing is first class throughout. 

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Nice to see this thread return & wow, loved your last post, so much good stuff in there. :) Fwiw, I reckon the front on your build & last Mustang is pretty much the best one ever. Imho of course. :D

Steve.

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Wow!  Beautiful build of a beautiful car.  The detailing is incredible.  From the finish of the upholstery to the engine details I feel a whole lot of "How on earth did you do that?" questions coming on, far too many to post.  That really is one heck of an achievement and puts my puny efforts firmly in the shade.   :worthy:

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12 hours ago, JeroenS said:

That's rough... sorry to hear that. 

Same for me, lost my father in June 2020 and Mom in February 2021.

With a difference from you: the workbench saved me a nervous breakdown !

 

Nice to see you again here with such a wonderful build 👍

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